MINISTERS DENY PLANS TO RAISE COUNCIL TAX

First published by: This is Money

The Government has denied it is planning to raise extra cash from millions of households with a nationwide Council Tax revaluation.

Threat: Many could be pushed into paying more Council Tax. The Government has quietly renewed a multi-million pound deal with one of Britain's leading property websites to access details of sale prices and floor plans of tens of thousands of homes.

Ministers had been 'caught red-handed' preparing for a nationwide reassessment of property values if they win the next election. Current Council Tax bills are based on assessments of properties made in 1991.

A revaluation would see millions moving into higher Council Tax bands and facing bigger bills. A Council Tax revaluation in Wales saw four times as many homes moving up a band as moving down. The contract between tax inspectors and Rightmove, which boasts the largest private property database in Britain, is understood to be worth around £2.2m a year.

Since 2005, homeowners have been putting their property on the market for sale without necessarily realising that tax inspectors at the Valuation Office Agency are collating data about each home. A 34-month contract with Rightmove expired last March after a Council Tax revaluation was put on hold by ministers in September 2007. The contract was justified by the VOA because it would 'help the agency's efforts in having a cost-effective and efficient conduct of the revaluation'.

But new Parliamentary questions have revealed the deal was renewed last November and backdated to March 2008. Last month, Communities Secretary admitted that the pledge not to hold a Council Tax revaluation only applies to this Parliament, leaving the door open to one.

Tory local government spokesman Caroline Spelman said: 'ministers have been caught red-handed secretly preparing for a Council Tax revaluation in England. This contract was signed in 2005 specifically to prepare for the revaluation.

'The only reason why it has now been renewed after it expired is to help with a revaluation. The public will be alarmed that detailed information on nine out of ten house sales are secretly being passed from estate agents to tax inspectors without the public's knowledge or agreement.

A spokesman for the Communities and Local Government Department dismissed the claims as 'disgraceful scaremongering'. 'This commercial agreement for publicly available sales information is nothing to do with any supposed revaluation,' he said. 'The contract with Rightmove has been in place since 2005, and saves the taxpayer money by reducing the need for VOA staff to visit properties.'

However, the spokesman was unable to extend the pledge not to hold a revaluation beyond the next election. Under regulations introduced in 1993, the VOA logs every structural improvement that takes place to a property. If the home is then sold, the agency is notified and can decide to carry out an inspection to determine whether it should be in a new Council Tax band. A spokesman for Rightmove said: 'The agreement allows the VOA only to access data already published on the Rightmove website, though it allows the VOA to do so in a more efficient and cost effective way.'

READ WHAT: ERICPICKLES ‘SECRETARY OF STATE’ SAYS ABOUT OVER-CHARGED COUNCIL TAX. 

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